94Sport5
Member
- Joined
- April 5, 2018
- Messages
- 47
- Reaction score
- 25
- City, State
- North Dakota
- Year, Model & Trim Level
- 1994 Ford Explorer Sport
Sorry if this isn't posted in the right spot, but my explorer is a basically stock first gen lol.
Well I'll start by saying, that replacing the transmission on a 94 explorer sport with the front end raised on jackstands is no easy task. It's a great experience though and when everything works you sure do feel proud of yourself! Another thing is you certainly CAN, at least on a sport, remove and install the transmission without removing any part of the exhaust...you just have to have the transmission jacked/lifted up as high as possible, like the top of the bellhousing touching the top of the trans tunnel high, while turning it and having someone pull on the tail housing while you push on the bellhousing, it absolutely will fit over the exhaust, coming out and going back in, but just barely. Just wanted to clarify that as so many people say different things about it. I also have no suspension mods done, but have heard sports sit one inch higher than 4 doors which might make a difference. Anyways, the point of this post is to give my experience with building a "hybrid" m5od 4x4 transmission.
I had made a post earlier this year concerning my findings with two different transmissions. Upon buying a listed 2.9 4x4 m5od on eBay, I thought I had it made by being able to put it in with no fuss..only to find out the bellhousing was for a 3.0 ranger, not a 2.9. So at that point, my journey started, knowing I had to take the internals out of the rebuilt 3.0 transmission. After doing so, and counting gear teeth on the input and countershafts I came to a pretty odd, but not impossible finding. The 3.0 transmission I bought had 4.0 gears with a 2.9/3.0 countershaft, and the old transmission I had in the truck originally laying around was rebuilt in the past with a 2.9 gearset, but had a 4.0 countershaft in it. Admittedly baffled by these findings, I got my bearings straight (in my head) and tried to simplify how they even worked together.
I started reading up on gear meshing after numerous "genius" mechanics told me it was impossible for them to work that way and the transmission would grenade itself since the 2.9/3.0 countershaft and 4.0 countershaft have different tooth counts, made specifically for their gearsets. So I took it upon myself to mock up the gearsets in an empty m5od case and see what was up. First I mocked up the new 4.0 gearset (from the 3.0 housing) and old 4.0 countershaft (from old transmission) and the meshed shifted and worked perfectly as they should. I then did the same with the old 2.9/3.0 gearset (from old transmission) and new 2.9/3.0 countershaft, again everything meshed shifted and worked perfectly as it should have. Then I took the differing countershafts and swapped them between BOTH 2.9/3.0 AND 4.0 gearsets, as they apparently originally were, and of course again, they worked fine.
So after finding all this out and after reading up on the 2.9/3.0 gearset behind the 4.0 ohv engine on all types of forums with differing opinions..including you will hate the steeper gearset with the 4.0 etc, and others saying they love it but it's a little much, I ended up deciding to use the new 4.0 gearset with my old but virtually flawless looking 2.9 countershaft. Oddly enough, it has a physically wider first gear than the 4.0 countershaft's first gear, which may also mean that it's stronger. I do have a pic of the difference. I calculated the ratios this hybrid transmission would have, using the new 4.0 gears & 2.9/3.0 countershaft together, and determined this combination to have 1-3 gearing of: 3.61, 2.13, 1.39, -vs- the 2.9/3.0 combination of 3.72, 2.20, 1.50..and the 4.0 combination of 3.40, 2.05, 1.31. As you can see, they are better ratios than the 4.0 trans gearing, especially first gear, and that it's actually right in the middle of both transmissions..so I thought they best of both worlds possibly right?
True Hybrid transmission 4.0 gears/2.9 countershaft
1st: 3.61:1---1.48 spread to 2nd--.21 more gear than 4.0 transmission
2nd: 2.13:1--.74 spread to 3rd---.08 more gear than 4.0 transmission
3rd: 1.39:1--.39 spread to 4th---.08 more gear than 4.0 transmission
4th: 1.00:1
2.9/3.0 m5od
1st: 3.72:1---1.52 spread to 2nd--.32 more gear than 4.0 transmission
2nd: 2:20:1--.70 spread to 3rd---.15 more gear than 4.0 transmission
3rd: 1:50:1---.50 spread to 4th---.19 more gear than 4.0 transmission
4th: 1.00:1
4.0 m5od/hd
1st: 3.40:1---1.35 spread to 2nd
2nd: 2.05:1--.74 spread to 3rd
3rd: 1.31:1---.31 spread to 4th
4th: 1.00:1
As you can see I kept the close ratio style of the 4.0 transmission by simply increasing the gearing of 1-3 with a countershaft with more teeth. After a long week of working on it mostly by myself after work, I replaced the flywheel, clutch & pressure plate, pilot bearing, slave cylinder & master cylinder, put in my newly rebuilt by myself hybrid transmission and bled the new clutch system. The master was pre bled so that helped quite a bit, because I had it bled totally in less than 10 mins.
Everything works flawlessly. There's not a lick of noise, it's very smooth and I must say, 1-3 are incredibly peppy now! Even though it looks on paper like such a minor difference, where the rpms are when I shift into second and third are in such a perfect spot for optimum torque that it feels like a completely different truck! It's much faster than before and I don't have to push on the pedal as hard to accelerate. I have about 200 miles of city driving on everything now and I'm so proud that it's finished and is working right.
I originally wanted to do this "hybrid" solution after the truck's 3.27 gears started getting to me, but boy is this a decent combination! I can't wait until my 4.10s are installed, I can see/ tell it will be so much better and still won't be too much gear especially when I move on to 31x10.5s or even 32s if they will fit with minimal cutting. Well..if any questions go ahead and ask! Rebuilding the m5od and then installing it by yourself I feel gives a great bit of experience, and if I can help anybody else out then I will! Everything is still very fresh in my mind lol.
Well I'll start by saying, that replacing the transmission on a 94 explorer sport with the front end raised on jackstands is no easy task. It's a great experience though and when everything works you sure do feel proud of yourself! Another thing is you certainly CAN, at least on a sport, remove and install the transmission without removing any part of the exhaust...you just have to have the transmission jacked/lifted up as high as possible, like the top of the bellhousing touching the top of the trans tunnel high, while turning it and having someone pull on the tail housing while you push on the bellhousing, it absolutely will fit over the exhaust, coming out and going back in, but just barely. Just wanted to clarify that as so many people say different things about it. I also have no suspension mods done, but have heard sports sit one inch higher than 4 doors which might make a difference. Anyways, the point of this post is to give my experience with building a "hybrid" m5od 4x4 transmission.
I had made a post earlier this year concerning my findings with two different transmissions. Upon buying a listed 2.9 4x4 m5od on eBay, I thought I had it made by being able to put it in with no fuss..only to find out the bellhousing was for a 3.0 ranger, not a 2.9. So at that point, my journey started, knowing I had to take the internals out of the rebuilt 3.0 transmission. After doing so, and counting gear teeth on the input and countershafts I came to a pretty odd, but not impossible finding. The 3.0 transmission I bought had 4.0 gears with a 2.9/3.0 countershaft, and the old transmission I had in the truck originally laying around was rebuilt in the past with a 2.9 gearset, but had a 4.0 countershaft in it. Admittedly baffled by these findings, I got my bearings straight (in my head) and tried to simplify how they even worked together.
I started reading up on gear meshing after numerous "genius" mechanics told me it was impossible for them to work that way and the transmission would grenade itself since the 2.9/3.0 countershaft and 4.0 countershaft have different tooth counts, made specifically for their gearsets. So I took it upon myself to mock up the gearsets in an empty m5od case and see what was up. First I mocked up the new 4.0 gearset (from the 3.0 housing) and old 4.0 countershaft (from old transmission) and the meshed shifted and worked perfectly as they should. I then did the same with the old 2.9/3.0 gearset (from old transmission) and new 2.9/3.0 countershaft, again everything meshed shifted and worked perfectly as it should have. Then I took the differing countershafts and swapped them between BOTH 2.9/3.0 AND 4.0 gearsets, as they apparently originally were, and of course again, they worked fine.
So after finding all this out and after reading up on the 2.9/3.0 gearset behind the 4.0 ohv engine on all types of forums with differing opinions..including you will hate the steeper gearset with the 4.0 etc, and others saying they love it but it's a little much, I ended up deciding to use the new 4.0 gearset with my old but virtually flawless looking 2.9 countershaft. Oddly enough, it has a physically wider first gear than the 4.0 countershaft's first gear, which may also mean that it's stronger. I do have a pic of the difference. I calculated the ratios this hybrid transmission would have, using the new 4.0 gears & 2.9/3.0 countershaft together, and determined this combination to have 1-3 gearing of: 3.61, 2.13, 1.39, -vs- the 2.9/3.0 combination of 3.72, 2.20, 1.50..and the 4.0 combination of 3.40, 2.05, 1.31. As you can see, they are better ratios than the 4.0 trans gearing, especially first gear, and that it's actually right in the middle of both transmissions..so I thought they best of both worlds possibly right?
True Hybrid transmission 4.0 gears/2.9 countershaft
1st: 3.61:1---1.48 spread to 2nd--.21 more gear than 4.0 transmission
2nd: 2.13:1--.74 spread to 3rd---.08 more gear than 4.0 transmission
3rd: 1.39:1--.39 spread to 4th---.08 more gear than 4.0 transmission
4th: 1.00:1
2.9/3.0 m5od
1st: 3.72:1---1.52 spread to 2nd--.32 more gear than 4.0 transmission
2nd: 2:20:1--.70 spread to 3rd---.15 more gear than 4.0 transmission
3rd: 1:50:1---.50 spread to 4th---.19 more gear than 4.0 transmission
4th: 1.00:1
4.0 m5od/hd
1st: 3.40:1---1.35 spread to 2nd
2nd: 2.05:1--.74 spread to 3rd
3rd: 1.31:1---.31 spread to 4th
4th: 1.00:1
As you can see I kept the close ratio style of the 4.0 transmission by simply increasing the gearing of 1-3 with a countershaft with more teeth. After a long week of working on it mostly by myself after work, I replaced the flywheel, clutch & pressure plate, pilot bearing, slave cylinder & master cylinder, put in my newly rebuilt by myself hybrid transmission and bled the new clutch system. The master was pre bled so that helped quite a bit, because I had it bled totally in less than 10 mins.
Everything works flawlessly. There's not a lick of noise, it's very smooth and I must say, 1-3 are incredibly peppy now! Even though it looks on paper like such a minor difference, where the rpms are when I shift into second and third are in such a perfect spot for optimum torque that it feels like a completely different truck! It's much faster than before and I don't have to push on the pedal as hard to accelerate. I have about 200 miles of city driving on everything now and I'm so proud that it's finished and is working right.
I originally wanted to do this "hybrid" solution after the truck's 3.27 gears started getting to me, but boy is this a decent combination! I can't wait until my 4.10s are installed, I can see/ tell it will be so much better and still won't be too much gear especially when I move on to 31x10.5s or even 32s if they will fit with minimal cutting. Well..if any questions go ahead and ask! Rebuilding the m5od and then installing it by yourself I feel gives a great bit of experience, and if I can help anybody else out then I will! Everything is still very fresh in my mind lol.